From now on, children will have to get off the streets of Lewisburg at night.

The north Logan County city passed a curfew ordinance Monday night that makes it against the law for minors to be out in public after 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends.

“When kids hang out on the street at midnight it's just an invitation for something to happen,” said Lewisburg mayor Ken Whitson. “There's not a whole lot for them to do, so they're just going to get into trouble.”

The new ordinance applies to any unsupervised person under the age of 18, but it has several exceptions - including being out past curfew while driving through town, hunting with permission, while engaged in a business or occupation or accompanied by a parent or guardian.

“We tried to cover everything,” Whitson said. “We requested ordinance from several other cities that have them and we just took the best parts of them and included it into ours.”

The curfew lasts until 6 a.m.

The ordinance was passed by a unanimous vote.

The curfew is something the Lewisburg government has been talking about for a while.

“We've discussed it quite a bit,” Whitson said. “We even last year. Every summertime, kids get bored and we get problems.”

Whitson said that this year there has been some cases of vandalism at the cemetery and graffiti painted on the post office.

He's not even sure that it is Lewisburg children causing the problem.

“We've had some kids that came into town that are not local - that seems to be more of the problem,” he said.

Lewisburg is not the first Logan County city to pass a curfew ordinance. Both Russellville and Auburn have similar laws on the books.